Mortality from Breast Cancer by Hispanic Ethnicity: Evidence from the US National Longitudinal Mortality Study

• In Event: 129 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Latino Mortality and Morbidity Patterns

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, especially in disadvantaged communities. In studying risk factors for breast cancer, Hispanics are frequently studied in mortality research as a homogeneous group.
Objective: The present study was undertaken to compare breast cancer deaths among persons of Hispanic origin by disaggregating groups in order to determine whether the categories in the Hispanic label have differential mortality risk.
Methods: Data utilized were from the latest public use release of the U.S. National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Cox proportional hazards regression models were fitted to the data.
Results: Individuals in the broader Hispanic label were 29% less likely to die from breast cancer than non-Hispanic whites (ARR=0.71, 95% CI = 0.57, 0.86). When Hispanic groups were broken down, we observed that Mexican women were 42% less likely to die of breast cancer than their non-Hispanic white female counterparts (ARR=0.58, 0.40, 0.83). No other Hispanic origin group was significantly associated with breast cancer mortality risk. Education was a predictor of mortality, along with central city residence regardless of Hispanic origin.
Conclusion: Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States. Yet epidemiological and sociological studies continue to treat them as a homogeneous group. Results from this study provide evidence to suggest that future research should break down Hispanics into sub-groups where data permit. Failure to do so will lead to drawing false inferences as they may hold for one group within the Hispanic label, but not others.

Authors

• Julie A. Collins-Dogrul, Whittier College

• Augustine J. Kposowa, University of California